It is well known in the prior art to provide air bag assemblies which are mounted on the vehicle steering wheel or instrument panels for the protection of vehicle occupants. It is also known to provide various air bag arrangements for protection of vehicle occupants during events in which the occupant interacts with the side of the vehicle. For example, it is known to provide air bags for side impact protection which have an upper head portion and a lower torso portion which simultaneously inflate for protection of a vehicle occupant during a side impact event from the vehicle door or seat.
It is also known to provide inflatable side air bags that deploy from the roof line or pillars of the vehicle to protect generally the head of a vehicle occupant. While these air bags can be designed to provide a large area of coverage, their larger size makes it more challenging to maintain stability of the air bag during occupant interaction. In addition, these arrangements require a substantial amount of inflation gas to quickly fill an inflatable restraint cushion with a relatively large volume for inflation.
It is also known in the prior art to provide longitudinally extending, rigid inflatable tubes that extend across a selected area of the vehicle between the vehicle pillars as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,480,181 and 5,322,322. While these inflatable tubes maintain a high pressure and provide increased rigidity, multiple independent tubes with multiple connection points to the vehicle body need to be utilized to cover the side of the vehicle.
It has also been suggested to provide a side head air bag with a plurality of vertically extending inflatable cells that include sewn together or tuckered portions between them. A single strap may also be woven in and out between the vertical cells and through the tuckered portions at a central location to provide some lateral support to the plurality of vertical cells. However, the lower edge of the air bag is not restrained. In addition, this arrangement has the shortcoming of the tuckered portions providing a plurality of regular, intermittent, flat vertical spots of noninflatable coverage on the air bag that decreases the amount of consistently inflated coverage available for occupant head protection.
It would be desirable to provide a side air bag that covers a larger area of the side of the vehicle, while increasing the stability and rigidity and while decreasing the amount of inflation gas and fabric cushion material to obtain the coverage.